Tag Archives: dessert

We love peanut butter popcorn and I have another recipe posted on here that we also make all the time but I wanted to share a variation of that recipe that I often use because sometimes I don’t have brown rice syrup on hand, and sometimes I have a big Costco bag of SkinnyPop popcorn (which only has a couple of ingredients, which I love!) and I want to make a fun, yet somewhat healthy, Friday night treat for the kids that I know they’ll love (you could also easily pop 1/2 c kernels as well, which is what we usually do). It’s super quick and easy, you’ll be done in five minutes and have a delicious treat, one in which everyone will keep coming back for more. And look at how few ingredients you need! I love it! (As a side note, you can add a little vanilla extract to this recipe when you add in the peanut butter, but we treat vanilla like gold these days as prices have jumped crazy high, so if it doesn’t make that much difference in a recipe, I tend to leave it out.)

First you’ll want to get out get out a large mixing bowl and either make your 1/2 cup, plain, air popped popcorn, or measure out 10 cups of Original flavored SkinnyPop. Set the popcorn aside.

Next you’ll want to add your coconut sugar and honey to a medium saucepan over medium, to medium-high heat. Stir this mixture together and once it comes to a soft boil, set your timer for 1 minute and allow it to boil while you’re continuously stirring. Once the timer rings, remove it from the heat and add in your peanut butter and quickly stir until they’re melted together. Immediately pour this peanut butter and honey mixture over your popcorn and stir until everything is combined and evenly coated. And that’s it!

Peanut Butter and Honey Popcorn

*makes 10 c

10 c SkinnyPop original popcorn (or 1/2 c kernels popped)

1/2 c coconut sugar

1/2 c honey

1/2 c natural peanut butter (creamy or crunchy; personal preference)

In a large mixing bowl add 10 cups of popcorn. Set aside. In a medium sauce pan, stir together coconut sugar and honey over medium to medium high heat. When it comes to a soft boil, allow it to boil for one minute while stirring continuously. Remove from heat, immediately add peanut butter and stir until combined and melted together. Immediatley pour over popcorn and stir to combine. Enjoy!

Advertisements

Share this:

Like this:

When the weather warms up, this girl continuously begs to make popsicles. And today was her lucky day because Mom said yes! We actually make Yogurt Fruit Popsicles fairly regularly in the Summer because it’s nice to have a cool, healthy treat on hand, and the kids like to help make them so it turns into a fun family activity.

Here is everything you’ll need; and you can sweeten it with stevia, pure maple syrup or honey, whatever you like or whatever you have on hand.

Share this:

Like this:

I have no excuse for the ‘no-post’ last week except that I didn’t plan ahead, meaning we had guests in town for a week, then my kids were off of school the next week for Spring break which was the week of the missed post, and since I knew I wouldn’t get around to it with them around, I should’ve written the post awhile back, but I did not. So I apologize. But that’s not to say that this won’t ever happen again, because it probably will some day, but I will try to let them be few and far between. Alright, let’s move on!

Last week was my 34th birthday and my sweet husband (and bff) made me a dessert he thought I’d like but boy was he wrong…I LOVED it! He knew I’d like it because of the ingredients: no dairy, no refined sugar but still sweet with a crumble topping and just amazing! And really, you can’t go wrong when there’s a crumble topping. He doubled the crumble topping from the original recipe because he knows me :). This is our modified recipe with the doubled crumble topping. Finish it off with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or in my case, coconut milk vanilla ‘ice cream’ or coconut milk whipped topping. I hope you enjoy!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and adjust rack to center of oven. Get out a 12 inch cast iron skillet(or 9×13 pan) and set aside. In a large bowl, toss together the strawberries, blueberries, lemon juice and corn starch. Spread the mixture in the skillet or 9×13; no need to grease. In the same bowl, whisk together the oats, almond flour or meal, nuts, cinnamon, ginger and salt. Add the maple syrup and oil and stir until combined. Spread the oat topping evenly over the berry mixture. Place in the center of the oven. Bake until the topping is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling, 25-30 minutes(closer to 30 if using frozen fruit). Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Advertisements

Share this:

Like this:

I hope you all had a nice Christmas; it is my absolute favorite holiday! I love the lights, the music, the food, I love acting out the nativity with our family and reading the Christmas story and one of my favorite things is having Scott around for several days in a row. This year we were so pleased that his parents were able to join us for Christmas from NC, and Scott was home for almost a week straight which was heaven on earth!

I am so excited to share this breakfast cookie recipe because I am loving them! It’s more of a quick, grab-and-g0 healthy snack or breakfast, rather than a dessert-type cookie. I freeze almost the entire batch and then eat one or two a day, straight out of the freezer; they don’t require any thawing time. If you don’t freeze them, just know that they are a softer cookie and I think after day two you’ll find they get even softer when stored in a tupperware so you’d probably want to freeze them after a couple of days. I waited a day before I froze mine. For those of you that care, each cookie is 100 calories when you make 36 cookies(I’m doing My Fitness Pal again for a short time which I don’t love, but because of all the yummy Christmas foods we still have around the house, I’ve been snacking way too often so this’ll help keep me in check). I found this recipe in this month’s Runners World magazine, which was submitted by Elyse Kopecky and though her recipe only makes 20 cookies, I found when I used my cookie scoop, 36 was a more accurate amount. If you make them bigger, then obviously, the calorie count per cookie will be higher.

Here are the ingredients:

You can buy almond flour, or you can grind your own if you have a high power blender. I just straight up throw in whole, raw almonds and grind them for several seconds, mix it with a rubber spatula, grind for several more seconds, and it’s done!

I added raisins and a handful of chopped walnuts but you can leave them plain or add some chocolate chips or whatever else you like.

I mix all my ingredients together in a large mixing bowl with a wooden spoon.

I baked these on my silicone mats. I love these baking mats because of ease of clean up and I love that I can slide the whole mat off the cookie sheet and onto a cooling rack with the cookies all in place and it only takes a second.

Have them cool completely before storing them in a tupperware or in freezer ziploc bags.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper and set aside. In a large mixing bowl add your flour, oats, coconut, cinnamon and salt. In a small mixing bowl combine your pumpkin, syrup, and oil. Add the pumpkin mixture to the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Add in any optional raisins, nuts, chocolate chips etc and stir until incorporated. Using a cookie scoop, scoop out dough and place on cookie sheet baking for about 25 minutes, until golden(check after 20). Makes 3 dozen cookies.

You can eat these right away or store in a tupperware container for a couple of days. They are also great cold and I like to freeze most of mine and eat them straight out of the freezer (they don’t require any thawing time because they’re a softer cookies).

Christmas is only five days away! We have Scott’s parents coming in town today from North Carolina, Thursday the kids get to play Christmas songs on a grand piano at a local grocery store, Saturday we will act out the nativity and sing lots of Christmas songs, and Sunday after stockings and gifts, we’ll go to church for an hour where Scott, me and Elisabeth will be performing (our church will do all musical numbers with a little narration on Christmas Sunday; no actual classes), and then we’ll come home and have a brunch with cinnamon rolls and egg casserole! So it’ll be a full and joyful week! And I cannot tell you how long I have been dreaming about having cinnamon rolls. I only make them a couple of times a year because 1) they’re time consuming and 2) (and most importantly) I love them SO much that I always eat too many . Here is my overnight cinnamon roll recipe(who wants to be making dough Christmas morning? not me) if you want to give them a try; they’re all whole grain and SUPER soft and delicious.

We made a couple of different foods to give away as neighbor/teacher gifts, a chex mix and this poppy seed bread which is made with half whole wheat flour and is sweetened with honey and apple sauce. We kept a loaf for our family and gave away three mini loaves and the next day my kids begged me to make more, and this time a double batch because it “wasn’t enough” :)! We love poppy seed bread at Christmas, and all the time!

Share this:

Like this:

Here’s the recipe I promised last week. It’s a Gingerbread Pumpkin Trifle recipe that I adapted from the Our Best Bites cookbook. The original recipe calls for 1 c powdered sugar in the whipped cream, so I lightened it up with a little pure maple syrup.

I also like to use coconut sugar in place of brown sugar whenever possible as it’s an unrefined sugar, and it tastes great in this recipe for the pumpkin mousse.

You can use the gingerbread recipe I posted last week which is made with whole wheat flour and is AMAZING all on it’s own! Once it has cooled, cut it into 1/2 inch cubes for this recipe. I’ve cooked it in a 9×13 dish and a large loaf pan and both work well.

If you’re layering into the smaller, individual serving dishes, I found it helpful to put a few of the gingerbread cubes in the bottom, and then gently push them down with a spoon. Next, using a cookie scoop or tablespoon, add in a couple scoops of the pumpkin mixture, gently tapping the glass on the counter and gently swirling the jar which helped fill in some gaps, and then adding the whipped cream and doing the same tapping and swirling motion to get it all spread out evenly.

Bake gingerbread according to recipe. Cool and cut into 1/2 inch cubes. Set aside. Combine heavy cream, maple syrup and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until medium-stiff peaks form and set aside.

For the mousse: Place water in a small, microwave safe bowl and sprinkle gelatin over it. Gently stir and then set bowl aside for 5 minutes for gelatin to soften. Combine pumpkin, coconut sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in a medium mixing bowl. Whisk to combine. Place bowl of gelatin in microwave and heat 30 seconds and then stir until dissolved completely. Add gelatin to pumpkin mixture and whisk until fully combined. Fold 2 cups of whipped cream into the pumpkin mixture, gently folding until incorporated.

Place half of gingerbread cubes on the bottom of a trifle bowl or other glass bowl with tall sides. Top with half of pumpkin mousse and half of remaining whipped cream. Repeat layers, ending with whipped cream, and sprinkle top lightly with nutmeg. Chill 1 hour before serving.

*When I served these for my book club, I found that putting them in individual serving dishes, like 1 cup mason jars, was perfect and kept them looking nice since large trifles tend to look a little messy when served.

Advertisements

Share this:

Like this:

We moved last week and so things have been crazy busy around here! We didn’t have internet for several days and even my iphone internet was spotty with the cellular data, which is why there was no post last week. But I think we are getting back into the swing of things around here now that we are mostly unpacked…I’m actually a crazy person and unpack and organize everything within the first couple of days, but there are a couple of boxes in the garage I need my hubby to go through and decide where he wants to put things. Anyhow, I haven’t done much cooking over the past month besides the quick and basic essentials: daily green smoothie, crock pot black beans, quinoa, spaghetti and yeah that’s about it :). Tomorrow I intend to make my granola that we always like to have on hand and hopefully I’ll get some real cooking and experimenting time in over the next couple of weeks.

This is a dessert recipe I’ve had for awhile and which we’ve made several times. They are a healthy version of a peanut butter rice crispy treat, which are kinda like my no-bake peanut butter rice crispy bars, but there are a few small differences like less peanut butter, no oats, and different natural sweeteners. Give them a try, they are delicious! And they’d be great to serve to friends at a gathering or to sell at a bake sale.

I find this cereal at health food stores like Sprouts or Whole Foods. There are a couple of different brands that work well, just make sure it’s the ‘brown rice crisp’ cereal and not the ‘puffed brown rice’.

Pour rice cereal into a large bowl. Heat the honey and syrup, with a pinch of sea salt in a saucepan over low heat. Add the peanut butter and stir until well combined. Pour over the rice cereal. Mix well with wooden spoon. Once cooled to room temperature, stir in chocolate chips. Make sure it’s cool or the chips will melt. Turn the mixture onto a 9×13 baking dish. Wet your wooden spoon lightly and press the mixture evenly into the pan, or lightly wet hands and press into pan. Let chill for an hour in fridge before cutting into squares and eating (if possible :)).

Advertisements

Share this:

Like this:

My sister and her family are traveling from Idaho to stay with us this weekend which we’re all very excited about! In anticipation for their stay, we made these super yummy, gluten-free and vegan candy bars that are sweetened with pure maple syrup and dates. They truly are amazing! And you store them in the freezer which means they are cold and so the perfect summer treat!

I found this recipe in Gwyneth Paltrow’s cook book and made a couple of small changes. She has you store them in the fridge, but my kids will only eat them if they’re straight out of the freezer (otherwise the bottom is too soft and they don’t like that consistency when combined with the harder chocolate/carob shell on top). The one down side to these bars is that you can’t throw this together in half hour. You have to allow it time to chill. I either make them in the morning or early afternoon so that they’re ready for dinner, or I’ll put them together in the evening and let them sit in the freezer overnight to have another day. And because they’re a frozen treat, you can enjoy them for a long time…if you can stand the temptation of them sitting in your freezer, just waiting to be eaten, that is :).

In your food processor, grind the raw cashews to a very fine meal. Add the dates and process together. Add almond butter, maple syrup, coconut flour, shredded coconut(or in my case, I used all shredded coconut and no flour…kinda turns into a flour as you mix anyway), and extract and pulse until it is a sticky ball of dough. Line a 9×13 dish with parchment paper and press the mixture into the paper. You can put a little oil or water on your hands to keep it from sticking too much. Stick it in your fridge.

While it’s chilling, combine the chocolate or carob chips and coconut oil in a stainless steel or glass bowl and set over a pot of simmering water (make sure the water does not touch the bowl…I just did this in my veggie steaming pan with a glass dish sitting on the steamer). You could alternately just warm it up in the microwave. When I warm it in the microwave I’ll warm it for about 30 seconds on normal power, stir, then back in for 30 seconds on HALF power, stir then repeat on half power for 30 seconds until completely melted.

Stir the mixture until it’s just melted, remove the bowl from the heat and pour the chocolate mixture over the cold cashew mixture.

Return to fridge and let it cool until the chocolate coating is set, about 1/2 hour. Cut into rectangles and then using the parchment paper, lift the bars out of the sheet pan.

Put in airtight container, separated by sheets of parchment paper if stacking, and freeze overnight (or for at least 3 hours).

Grind the cashews to a very fine meal in a food processor. Add the dates and process together. Add almond butter, maple syrup, coconut flour, shredded coconut, and extract and pulse until it is a sticky ball of dough. Line a 9×13 dish with parchment paper and press the mixture into the paper. You can put a little oil or water on your hands to keep it from sticking too much. Put in the refrigerator.While that’s chilling, combine the chocolate or carob chips and coconut oil in a stainless steel or glass bowl and set over a pot of simmering water until just melted(make sure the water does not touch the bowl). You can alternately warm this up in the microwave; 30 seconds on normal power, stir, 30 seconds half power, stir then repeat at half power with stirring in between until completely melted. Pour the chocolate mixture over the cold cashew mixture. Return to fridge and let it cool until the chocolate coating is set, about 1/2 hour(if you wait much longer, it’s okay, but the chocolate coating will crack more). Cut into rectangles and then using the parchment paper, lift the bars out of the sheet pan. Put in airtight container, separated by sheets of parchment paper if stacking, and freeze overnight (or for at least 3 hours). Store in the freezer.

*These bars need to set up in the freezer for at least 3 hours, so plan ahead.

Advertisements

Share this:

Like this:

Life is always busy when you have 5 kids at home, but these past couple of weeks in particular have been insanely busy! No free time whatsoever, except when I exercise and read scriptures from 5-7am in the mornings, and when I sleep at night. So that means I did not read my book club book this month and it means that I am a day late getting this post out. I apologize and I am praying things will get to a more manageable pace here pretty soon…it is the kids last week of school so hopefully that will help…or maybe it’ll make things worse “:). Only time will tell :). Until things calm down, I am going to do my best to stay on top of these weekly posts, but if I’m a day late, please bear with me.

I found a similar recipe for these shortbread cookies in Alicia Silverstone’s cookbook called the Kind Diet, and I just tweaked a couple of things and this is a recipe we love and have made for years. The cookie itself is not super sweet which I love, but still satisfies your sweet craving. When you add the carob or chocolate chip coating it definitely ups the sweet flavor, but it’s still not going to be sweet like a frosted sugar cookie. About half the time I make these just plain, with no dipping so they are great both ways.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the oil(will have to melt your coconut oil if it’s not liquid), syrup, vanilla, and water. Add the flours, baking powder and salt and stir together with a wooden spoon.

Arrange cookies on the prepared baking sheet (can cook them on the parchment paper on the baking sheet), and bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

We made some into hearts for Valentine’s Day :). See how festive you can be, all the while eating healthily :).

Now, these cookies are great just as is, or if you’re wanting something a little sweeter, you can make a chocolate/carob sauce to dip your cookies in halfway by combining chocolate chips, syrup and oil in the top of a double boiler(I usually put a small glass dish in the top of my steaming veggies pan) and place over simmering water and melt ingredients and stir until smooth . Then dip each cookie halfway into the chocolate sauce and place on a sheet of wax or parchment paper. Let sit on counter for about 15 minutes (or in fridge to speed process), until hardened.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the oil, syrup, vanilla, and water. Add the flours, baking powder and salt and stir together with a wooden spoon. Roll the dough out into 1/2 inch thickness between 2 sheets of parchment paper (this helps prevent sticking). Use cookie cutters to cut the dough into desired shapes. Arrange cookies on the prepared baking sheet (can cook them on the parchment paper on the baking sheet), and bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.Instructions for Optional Chocolate Coating:
While cookies are cooling, combine the chocolate chips, syrup and oil in the top of a double boiler(I usually put a small glass dish in the top of my steaming veggies pan) and place over simmering water and melt ingredients and stir until smooth . Dip each cookie halfway into the chocolate sauce and place on a sheet of wax or parchment paper. Let sit on counter for about 15 minutes (or in fridge to speed process), until hardened.

Advertisements

Share this:

Like this:

Our daughter Annabelle turned 8 last month and made the choice to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Her baptism will be this Saturday and both of her grandmothers, who live on opposite coasts, will be flying in for the baptism which will make her day even more special. Her aunt, my sister, and her husband and daughter are also coming out for the baptism and we will have them all staying with us this weekend which I’m super excited about! I’m excited to cook for them and share with them some of the foods we love, that still fit in with their dietary restrictions. My sister’s family is gluten-free, vegan and our mothers are both doing lots of alkaline foods which mostly means lots of plants and they are all trying to stay away from refined sugar. I am especially excited about sharing this raw key lime pie with them(which we’ve made several times), that I whipped up yesterday and it’s in the freezer waiting to be eaten :)….I hid it in the back of the freezer for now because if my kids see it, they will not leave it alone, it’s that good! Because it’s a frozen treat, you can enjoy a slice of this for a long time, or if you’re serving it for a special occasion for a group, you can make it days or even a week ahead of time, which I love!

Start out by measuring your walnuts into a small bowl and adding enough filtered water to cover them. Allow them to soak for 15 minutes. In the meantime, get out the rest of your ingredients, pit your dates and juice your limes and set the juice aside.

Once the walnuts are done soaking, add them to a food processor (I once tried it in my blendtec and ended up dumping it into my food processor because it wasn’t working well…you probably could do it in your blendtec if you have the Twister Jar attachment), along with the rest of the crust ingredients and process them for about 30 seconds; they will clump together and form into a ball shape.

Take out the crust and press it into the bottom of a 9 inch round pan using a rubber spatula, a spoon or your hand. I used a metal cake pan that I knew would do well in my freezer…I’ve had some glass break in my freezer so I tend not to put glass in there anymore, but if your freezer does fine with glass, then a pyrex pie pan would be great too.

Next place all your filling ingredients into a blender, or clean out the food processor and put them in there, and blend until smooth.

Pour the filling onto the crust, and spread with a spoon so it’s all even. Cover it with sarab wrap and place it in the freezer for at least 3 hours.

When you are ready to serve the pie, pull it out of the freezer and allow it to sit on the counter for about 5-10 minutes so it’s easier for you to cut into. With a sharp knife, cut into 12 slices and serve immediately. Keep leftovers in the freezer.

Preparation: Soak your walnuts in a bowl with filtered water if you haven’t already. Get out all ingredients and squeeze the lime juice from limes; set aside. Take out the pits from your dates and set dates aside (toss pits)…can do this with a paring knife or with your fingers.

Put all crust ingredients together in a food processor with blade in place and process until it comes together and forms a ball. Press this into a 9-inch cake pan or pie plate (will freeze so make sure it’s something that can handle the freezer; my cake pan works great).

Clean out the food processor and with the blade in place, add the filling ingredients (or you can all blend this together in a high power blender, but may have to scrape down sides with rubber spatula). Blend filling ingredients and pour over the crust. Smooth and evenly distribute with your a spoon or rubber spatula. Cover with saran wrap and allow to freeze for at least 3 hours or overnight. Plan for allowing it to sit at room temperature about 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

*I love this because it’s frozen so I can eat a slice, cover it back up and have a slice again the next day, and the next, and the next until it’s gone :). Or you can make it several days or even a week before you have company over so you’re not doing all your cooking on the same day.

Follow Blog via Email

Real Foods Mom

Hello!

I'm Elisa. As a mom of five, I have developed a great appreciation for good health. I know health is not just a matter of luck. I know that our bodies do best when we eat real foods: foods that come from the earth and which haven't been highly processed. This blog will be a means for me to share real food recipes my family enjoys. To read more about my story, click the picture above.....